Quote:
Originally Posted by ratdude747
The funny thing is that most/all of the older AM designs are mass-produced versions of 45's gearboxes... I hear before AM while there were KOP gearboxes they generally were junk in comparison. Hence why for many teams it was worth the little bit of machining to modify a dewalt or a lot of machining to DIY gearboxes.
Now days, it's more of an art than a necessity... although the summer/fall CAD threads show that people still think about it even if they don't always execute.
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Hi, old-timer turned AndyMark employee.
The 2004 kit drivetrain is the only pre-modern "kit drivetrain" I got to experience. I emphasize the quotes, because
the setup using Bosch drill gearboxes and custom unobtanium mounts and couplers left a lot to be desired. (Oh, and they expected you to weld the frame.)
The 2005-2006 kit drivetrain was a sheetmetal frame designed by a college student (John V-Neun, you might've heard of him) with a single-speed gearbox designed by Paul Copioli (you might've heard of him too). This was the first time you could order all the parts online in a non-obnoxious manner, through IFI Robotics. (The internal spur gears were sourced from an upstart company in Indiana called AndyMark.) The molded hubs on this drive system that clamped around the kit Skyway wheels (remember those?) established the 1.875" bolt circle as a de facto standard for FRC that remains today. (The cast housing and metric-sized output shaft on the gearbox? Not so much.) I don't remember when the original AM Toughbox came out, but I know we were evaluating it during the 2006 season. It became part of the Kit of Parts in 2009 and 2010.
But yes, the original AM Shifter does trace its lineage back to designs introduced by the TechnoKats. Many of the shifting parts have carried over to successive designs, even as things like external output shafts, servo shifting, room for more motors, and encoders have been added.